Sunday, July 3, 2011

Tymor Park Challenge Race Report 5/15

It was a good race and a bad race all at once. The mechanical monster crept up and made it tough but I persevered! For the first lap I toned it down a bit and put the pedals down smoothly to try and not make my eyes bleed off of the line. I was sitting towards the back but feeling like lap 2 I could pick it up a bit and stay consistent through lap 3 and pick off some guys. It was all great in theory until my pedal body decided to detach from the spindle on my egg beaters. On the top of the climb my right foot unclipped and I found the pedal body attached to my foot and not attached to the bike = crap. So I somehow realigned both while rolling and kept pedaling but this was really hard to do. Each lap my pedal would slide of 10+ times. I figured out the best way to deal with it when it happened was to smash my foot into the ground releasing the pedal body and then put it on the spindle by hand and keep pedaling. Do this 30-40 times and it gets pretty annoying.

By the end I found out on smoother terrain I could reach down and rip the body off of my shoe and remount it while riding but it was dicey. I tried to stay consistent (when not searching for my pedal in the leaves) but it was tough not being able to be consistent. I love that course. I could have easily bagged it and ended my misery but why not turn it into a skill day? One footed downhills are amazing for balance training ;-) Anyway it was still a good day since I was able to finish ahead of Ken L. and John A. I figured I'd be DFL for sure with the pedal issue.

About Me

Give me some of that good 'ol techy stuff and a chance to donate a little blood whenever possible. Pushing myself to it's limits gives me great satisfaction. Seeing the finish line and meeting all the new people really makes the suffering worth while.